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Americans United for Change is a left-of-center 501(c)(4) group once characterized as a “dark money group” by the left-leaning Sunlight Foundation that supports progressive causes and Democratic candidates.[1] The organization is headed by controversial Democratic operative Brad Woodhouse.[2]

Background

Americans United for Change was founded in 2005 as part of the liberal effort to counter then-President George W. Bush’s efforts to reform Social Security.[3] Over the succeeding years, the organization expanded its efforts to support the full-scale left-wing agenda including supporting President Barack Obama’s immigration executive orders, attacking opponents of biofuel production, pushing increases in the minimum wage, and attacking Republican congressmen for aligning with the Tea Party movement.[4]

The organization has been paid also by Democratic political action committees and campaigns. Both House Democratic Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s campaign committee and leadership PAC as well as the NextGen Climate Action Committee associated with Democracy Alliance donor Tom Steyer have given donations exceeding $100,000 to Americans United for Change.[6]

Americans United for Change collected upwards of $830,000 in union dues in 2016, according to the union-skeptical Center for Union Facts.[7]

Controversies

Trump Campaign Rally Violence

In 2016, Americans United for Change fired National Field Director Scott Foval after he was caught on camera suggesting that the AUC had paid mentally ill and homeless people to instigate violence at Trump campaign events in 2016. In the released videos, Foval brags about the tactics used by the AUC and its role in painting President Trump as well as his supporters as “anarchic” and dangerous.[8]

See the AFL-CIO and AFSCME Department of Labor Annual Reports (Forms LM-2) from FY 2015; the IRS Forms 990 for the Unity Fund in 2012, the Partnership Project Action Fund in 2010, and the Ploughshares Fund for 2014; and Atlantic Philanthropies. “Grantees: Americans United for Change.” 2009. Accessed January 11, 2017. http://www.atlanticphilanthropies.org/grantees/americans-united-for-change↩